Hydrogen Infrastructure and Control Valve Selection 101

As the world accelerates its transition to clean energy, hydrogen is emerging as a critical fuel source for reducing carbon emissions across industries. Whether used as industrial feedstock, transportation fuel, or energy storage, hydrogen production is rapidly evolving with growing investments in blue and green hydrogen infrastructure.

However, scaling hydrogen production safely and efficiently presents unique challenges—high pressures, extreme temperatures, hydrogen embrittlement, and strict safety regulations. At the heart of this process are control valves, ensuring the precise regulation of hydrogen flow in production, transportation, and storage. The right control valves not only optimize efficiency and reduce costs but also mitigate risks associated with handling hydrogen at industrial scales.

This guide explores hydrogen market trends, technical challenges in process control, and the key considerations for selecting hydrogen-ready control valves.

Hydrogen Market Trends and Growth

We currently categorize hydrogen production in three ways:

• Gray hydrogen is produced from natural gas using steam methane reforming (SMR) without carbon capture, which leads to significant CO2 emissions. Gray hydrogen currently accounts for the vast majority of hydrogen production.
• Blue hydrogen uses the same SMR process to produce hydrogen, but it’s coupled with carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) which reduces its carbon footprint.
• Green hydrogen is generated through water electrolysis, using renewable energy sources, which virtually eliminates carbon emissions. Currently, it only accounts for less than 1% of global hydrogen production according to the IEA, but green hydrogen facilities made up 80% of hydrogen supply projects in 2023.

Both governments and private investors are heavily funding hydrogen infrastructure with a focus on making blue and green hydrogen more widely available and more cost-effective, including the new 45V rules for production tax credits.

Combined with declining costs of renewable energy sources and improvements in CCUS technologies, some predictions suggest the demand for blue and green hydrogen could soar. This would see clean hydrogen demand go from less than 1 million tons per year (Mtpa) to 585 Mtpa by 2050.

So where do control valves enter the equation? Like any industrial infrastructure, hydrogen production requires process control, where control valves play a leading role. They ensure precise and regulated flow of the highly valuable but also highly dangerous substance during production, transportation and storage.

Technical Challenges in Hydrogen Process Control

While hydrogen is nothing new in industrial automation, there are challenges involved in scaling safely and efficiently to help meet projected demands and carbon emissions goals. Control valves and their accessories need to be infallible to ensure producers can avoid danger to life, but also to maximize output, supporting lower costs and stimulating demand for clean hydrogen.

These are the common technical challenges facing control valves in hydrogen infrastructure:

• High Pressure Conditions: Hydrogen compression and storage require control valves rated for 350-700 bar to withstand extreme conditions and ensure system safety.
  
  
• Hydrogen Embrittlement: Hydrogen embrittlement weakens materials over time. If a control valve isn’t made of resistant materials, this increases maintenance and replacement demands and the frequency of downtime that follows.
  
  
• Extreme Temperature Variations: Some hydrogen applications require control valves that operate at -425°F (-254°C). Valve materials and designs need to be able to not only withstand, but also perform optimally in a very large temperature range, including extremely cold temperatures.
  
  
• Precise Flow Control: All hydrogen production methods require carefully controlled flow rates of reactants (such as water, methane or oxygen) to optimize process efficiency, hydrogen yield and hydrogen quality.
  
  
• Rigorous Safety Standards: Hydrogen control valves have multiple standards to meet from multiple bodies such as the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) in order to ensure the highest level of safety for workers and the environment.

These are also the challenges facing actuators in hydrogen production which we’ve explored in more detail in this blog post.

Optimizing Hydrogen Control Valve Performance

There’s another control valve application that offers lessons for optimal performance in hydrogen production—aerospace testing. The lessons we’ve learned from aerospace testing applications at Trimteck, from propulsion engines to wind tunnels, have allowed us to engineer rugged and reliable control valves for hydrogen production.

These are the approaches we’ve taken and decisions we’ve made to optimize hydrogen production control valves:

• Selecting the Right Materials: Hydrogen embrittlement weakens metals over time, leading to leaks and failures. We use stainless steel, Inconel, and Hastelloy for our valve bodies and trims, ensuring long-term resistance to hydrogen diffusion and mechanical stress.
  
  
• Precision-Engineered Design: Hydrogen storage and transport require control valves that can withstand pressures up to 700 bar. We designed our ST range of valve trims to handle extreme pressure drops and high differential pressures while ensuring stable and precise control.
  
  
• Cryogenic Service: Liquid hydrogen is stored at -253°C (-423°F), requiring specialized cryogenic control valves. Our cryogenic control valves maintain precise flow control in ultra-low temperatures while preventing material contraction and ensuring tight shutoff.
  
  
• Maximizing Compliance: Compliance with ISO 15916, ISO 19880-3, and ASME B31.12 ensures hydrogen control valves meet rigorous safety standards. Our ISO 9001-certified manufacturing process includes advanced cleaning procedures to remove contaminants that could lead to ignition hazards.
  
  
• Fugitive Emissions: Hydrogen’s small molecular size makes leak prevention critical. Our OpGL GuardMaster Metal Bellows Seal eliminates emissions by providing a zero-leakage solution, even under extreme pressure and temperature fluctuations.

Selecting the Right Control Valve for Hydrogen Production

As hydrogen production scales to meet net-zero goals, choosing the right control valves is critical for ensuring safety, efficiency, and long-term reliability. High pressures, embrittlement risks, and extreme temperature variations require precision-engineered valves built from durable materials, designed for tight shutoff and minimal fugitive emissions.

At Trimteck, we apply our decades of expertise—including lessons learned from aerospace testing applications—to deliver rugged and reliable control valves for hydrogen production. With ISO 9001-certified processes, specialized trim designs, and zero-leakage sealing technologies, our valves help maximize hydrogen output while meeting the industry’s most stringent safety standards.

As the hydrogen economy expands, investing in high-performance control valves will be key to advancing clean energy infrastructure. Learn more about our hydrogen solutions and how they can support your operations here.